If he will make a statement on his Department's progress towards the introduction of stakeholder pensions. [53478]

When he expects to publish his proposals for stakeholder pensions. [53487]

We are developing a framework for stakeholder pension schemes, which will offer secure, flexible and value-for-money second pensions for people who do not have the opportunity to join an occupational scheme and for whom many personal pensions can be unsuitable. We will publish a green paper on pensions later this year, which will include more details of our proposals for stakeholder schemes.

May I remind the Minister that, on 15 December last year, he said that early this year, the Government would publish their review proposals on pensions? Is not that green paper an unconscionably long time coming? Is not the delay even worse for those who read the Labour party's election manifesto of spring 1997, which said that low-wage earners and those with patterns of employment that were not fixed could expect a funded pension in their own right? It seems that that expectation has, along with the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field), gone walkies.

The welfare reform green paper that we published in the spring said that the pensions Green Paper would be published later this year, and that is the timetable to which we are working. We are keen to get our proposals right, because no one—at least, no one on the Government Benches—has forgotten the introduction of personal pensions by the previous Administration, or the mis-selling that was a consequence of the failure to get the regulatory and legal system right. I do not believe that anyone involved in the provision of pensions begrudges the Government a month or two in which to do the work necessary to ensure that our proposals meet the needs that we have set out.

Will the Minister tell us the reasons for the delay in publishing the Government's proposals? Will he confirm that the delay stems not from him, but from the Treasury? Will he tell us why the Treasury blocked proposals, reliably reported to have been circulated by him and his Department, for a compulsory stakeholder pension scheme?

The hon. Gentleman refers to a series of myths of his own making. We set out the timetable for the reform proposals in the welfare reform green paper earlier this year and we are working to that timetable. What is different is that the current Government recognise the difficulties faced by people on low and modest incomes, or those who have intermittent working patterns, in obtaining a decent value-for-money pension. Instead of continually sniping, Conservative Members might better spend their time explaining why they did so little over so long a period to enable such people to get a decent pension.

Are the Government planning a form of stakeholder pension that contains an element of redistribution, so that the poor can be made full members of the scheme; or will the Government be content to allow that most vulnerable group to be dependent on means-tested assistance?

My right hon. Friend will be aware that we shall publish proposals later this year. He can be assured that we are concerned about the ability of people on low incomes to build up adequate pensions for their retirement.

Given the tax increases that have taken place, especially the changes to advance corporation tax and the abolition of personal equity plans and tax-exempt special savings accounts, what are the Government going to offer people who have an acceptable disposable income to induce them to take up a stakeholder pension?

The hon. Gentleman will be aware that the changes made by the Government in our early months in office, including a large cut in corporation tax on major employers, were part of a package of measures designed to put the economy and the public finances on a sound basis. The Government and the country are now able to benefit from that action, because it created an environment favourable to long-term investment in the economy—the sort of long-term investment that creates the wealth from which future pensions can be paid. By creating that sort of stable environment, we create the conditions for a sound pensions policy in future.

If he will estimate the number of self-employed people who do not have any pension provision arrangements. [53479]

In 1996, around half of all self-employed people were estimated to be contributing to a personal pension. A further 11 per cent. of the self-employed were not making contributions, but had contributed to a personal pension in the past.

Does the Minister agree with the recent report published by the Federation of Small Businesses which warned that any compulsory increase in contributions above the current 6 per cent. level would have a devastating effect on that area of the small business community?

Evidence to the pensions review included quite a number of submissions calling for an extension of compulsion. However, those arguments were by no means unanimous—indeed, the arguments about compulsion are by no means one-sided. We promised to look seriously at all those arguments in the welfare reform green paper, and we shall do that. I assure the hon. Gentleman that my officials and I have had meetings with the Federation of Small Businesses and that we are listening carefully to its concerns.